Our very own club member, Ron Monti, presented this topic. This is a continuation of the topic he presented in July of 2013. He was kind enough to briefly go over the first part for those of us that missed it. After this brief overview, he dove into the new material.
Imaging Meeting Location vote There was not enough for a quorum. At the in meeting the vote was
Date: August 5th, 2013 Attended: Ann Murphy, Ian Hewitt, Chris Cole, Chuck Jaynes 1) Constitution Update –All
Dr. Patrick Treuthardt, Ph.D. Assistant Director, NRC Astronomy Laboratory was the presenter in the December meeting. His talk was divided into three sections. The first he gave an overview of the formation and evolution of galaxies. The second section, he showed examples of different galaxy formation –both the expected and the unexpected. Lastly, he discussed some of the recent research in the field. All during the talk, he answered questions that came up.
On Saturday November 9th the Raleigh Astronomy Club hosted a public observing session at North Cary Park. Despite some thick cloud cover the club proceeded with the event by delaying the start time one hour. The weather forecasts had estimated the clouds to clear by 9pm but is was closer to 9:45pm until there was a substantial enough amount of clearing, though there were pockets of clearing by 8pm.
The morning of Sunday November 3rd, 2013 saw a rare hybrid solar eclipse. The type of eclipses has features of both an annual and total solar eclipse. Unfortunately, here in North Carolina, the eclipse was already well underway at sunrise and only showed as a partial eclipse. Although the morning dawned quite cool, several groups went to locations in North Raleigh and Cary to view the event. The weather was very clear and with a low horizon, it was a…
The October indoor meeting features Gary Stephenson, Chief Meteorologist for Time Warner’s News 14, speaking on his interest in astronomy and the challenges of communicating astronomy and science related topics to the general public. This was also the first regular meeting held in the new Nature Research Center on the new Thursday schedule. The new venue was really great!
While a large contingent of RAC members attended the Staunton River Star Party, some of those that were not able to get away still took advantage of the very good weather do some observing. One group of six went to the Big Woods site and 5-6 people traveled to Howell Woods. After a dreary summer, it was great to gather some photons, no matter where it was done!
Report Period: 1 Jul 2013 – 30 Sep 2013 Income & Expenses INCOME Membership Dues 300.00 Interest 1.30 Total $301.30 EXPENSES PayPal Transaction Fees (PayPal) -9.60 Executive Committee Meeting (Mike Keefe) -33.80 AL Dues (Astronomical League) -690.00 Safe Deposit Box (Wells Fargo) -75.00 Speaker Expenses (Spectrum Screen Printing) -18.00 Storage Unit (Uncle Bob’s Storage) -1,044.00 Telephone (Jerry Watson) -9.95 Reimbursed Expense (Club Apparel Orders) -304.17 Total -$1,876.78 Account Balances Business Checking 1,939.86 ($120.23 uncleared) PayPal 82.23 Regular Savings 10,312.99 Special…
The September observing session lived up to everyone’s expectation with cool, but not cold temperatures and good skies. The Milky Way was clearly visible from Big Woods and made for a very nice site. About 20 members and first time guests attended the event. Mike Keefe and Doug Lively gave the visitors and first time attendees a lot of help and good advice on telescopes. Way to go!! Joe Pedit also shot this image of the southern sky and the…
Embroidered RAC Garments Phyllis Lang brought the garments that people had ordered. If you ordered clothing, but were not able to come to the meeting, contact Phyllis Lang to get your shirt. She had one or two that people had not picked up. Equipment was demonstrated for members
The September indoor meeting feature and on-line presentation from Tom Field, contributing Editor to Sky & Telescope magazine. Tom, from his home in Seattle, provided a great introduction to affordable spectroscopy for amateur astronomers that was both informative and very entertaining.
Embroidered RAC Garments Some examples of the shirts were displayed at the meeting. People could place there order at that time. Here is more information about how to place an order and other information.
After a summer of rain and generally poor observing conditions, late August brought some clear skies with favorable moon conditions and photon-starved members went have gone and taken advantage of the conditions, including this wide field view by member Joe Pedit (used with permission).
The August meeting featured the annual Club Social event. This is always popular with the members and there was a really good turn out this year. Many members brought a wide array of food items, including some great desserts!
